Furia Rubel Event Photos

About Furia Rubel

Furia Rubel is a public relations (PR) and marketing agency representing law firms nationwide. We're located in Doylestown, outside of Philadelphia in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Contact us at http://www.furiarubel.com/ or call (215) 340-0480.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Every morning I pack my lunch into my L.L.Bean Boat and Tote™ bag, get my travel mug of coffee, give the cats their treats and back out the door, making sure it’s locked. Starting my car, I adjust the radio, put on my seat belt and off I go.

Then there are the mornings when I feel I’m forgetting something.

I start driving down the road, bopping my head to the music or listening intently to a story on NPR that caught my ear. I’m halfway to work when I realize I’ve forgotten my cell phone. Suddenly, I begin to panic...I mean, really start worrying about how I’m going to get through the day without it.

What is wrong with this picture? I have only started carrying a cell phone regularly for about six or seven years. Much of that time, I didn’t have good service, so it didn’t matter much. I live in a somewhat rural area in Pennsylvania where cell phone service was spotty at best and only in the last couple years has it been good enough that I don’t have dropped calls when at home. Point being, I have lived a lot of years without a cell phone, so what is the big deal?

I don’t make many phone calls or send many text messages, but it does keep me connected to my family and friends. I carry a smartphone that, of course, comes with a data plan for using WiFi and 4G, however, I use it as my home phone as well. I have a land line, but it’s only used for Internet purposes since I live far enough from others to not be offered something faster than a high speed DSL service.

There have been many important messages that have come through that cell phone to make me want to keep it on my desk every day: an ultrasound video of my great nephew, an update from my sister-in-law about our oil tank spillage in our basement at home and the scary texts from my partner when she thought she may have been having a cardiac episode and was being taken to the hospital. It was that day I realized, I would never be without a cell phone. The visit to the emergency room took more than 13 hours and I had to communicate with family quickly about what was happening.

So, what do I do on the infrequent occasions when I leave my cell phone at home? Since I live 18 miles from the office, I bite the bullet and turn around to retrieve it and hope I don’t get a speeding ticket on my way into work to make up for the lost time. Of course, I send an email to the Furia Rubel staff from my driveway that I’m running late before getting back on the road.

I’ll admit, I’m on my cell phone a lot. It’s mostly for the social networking and fun stuff: Facebook, email (both work and personal) Words with Friends, Solitaire – I am addicted to that silly card game – and my camera. I take photos all the time, some I share and many I don’t. I am hooked on Instagram and Pinterest and a Craigslist app comes in handy for my yard sale fun on weekends which I combine with a MapQuest app to find my way around unfamiliar neighborhoods. I use my phone when I’m in the car as a passenger. I am not addicted to it. Really, I’m not. I know because I took this test and I don’t suffer from all of the symptoms!

Cute great nephew photo!

With that said, as a rule I don’t use my phone in the company of others at a dinner table or during social events unless I’m showing off a photo of my adorable, four-month-old great nephew or scenes from a day trip my partner and I took recently or a client affair that the Furia Rubel team attended.

I believe in giving my time to those I’m with. I think it’s still important to show appropriate social skills and find myself worrying that the youth today aren’t going to know how to manage communicating face-to-face if they can’t look up from the glowing screen in their hands.

I am sure I could manage to go without my phone for a day or two. I choose not to. What I do choose is a balance between being connected to others through wireless signals and making connections face-to-face.